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Corruption In Procurement of PDB

EB Report

Allegations are there that, the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board’s (BPDB or PDB) procurement process is engrossed in plentiful corruption. Addressing these issues, the Prime Minister’s
Office (PMO) and the Ministry of Power, Energy and mineral Resources have recently ordered the PDB to investigate. Complaints are there that, with compliance with some of the corrupt officials of the board,
the PDB has been placing purchase orders at a much higher rate than the market prices.

Corruption in the procurement of the machinery of PDB is resulting huge loss from every perspective. The machinery that are being purchased through corruption are usually very poor in quality. These low-quality machinery are responsible for bad Quality of Service (QoS) of the country’s power sector and at the same time causing huge
financial loss to the government and the people.

However, Eng. Khaled Mahmud the chairman of the PDB stated that, up to the date of reporting, the PDB has not formed any investigation committee or started the investigation either. Moreover, PDB was
requested investigating an alleged procurement worth BDT 30 crore in the last year. Suraiya Akter, the deputy secretary of the Power Division issued that letter on 21st September 2016 requesting a proper
investigation. Unfortunately, PDB couldn’t resolve that complaint indeed.

A letter was issued on last December 4th by Shamim Ahmed, one of the directors of the PMO requesting the PDB director (purchase) Abu Yousuf and Chief Engineer (Production) A H M Kamal to investigate the recent
allegation of huge corruption in procurement. The letter also requested the concerned PDB authority to report the PMO about the progress of the investigation.

However, Eng. Khaled Mahmud claimed that, he has got some complaints from the PMO and the Ministry. He also claimed that, at first glance, he couldn’t find any corruption in the procurement process of the
board. He also countercharged the critics saying that, someone might want to hinder the progress of the power sector by raising such allegation. He said that, the board would start the investigation soon.